LIFE WITHOUT PORPOISE
Board approves cetacean ban
The Vancouver park board voted Monday night to ban new cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium, a move that was greeted with applause and cheers from animalrights activists even as aquarium staff warned it would threaten its marine mammal rescue program.
Hundreds of aquarium supporters stood outside the park board offices in the rain Monday for more than two hours, carrying placards and voicing opposition to the ban, but failed to sway the board.
Commissioner Catherine Evans, who supports the ban, said there is a moral imperative to act.
“We can keep cetaceans in captivity and there can be a debate about the relative comfort and safety of the cetaceans, but we have reached a point now where we know we shouldn’t,” Evans said during the meeting. “There are other options.”
The board voted to change its bylaws to ban new dolphins, whales or porpoises — including sick or injured ones — at the aquarium, which drew a record 1.2 million visitors last year.
It will allow the aquarium to keep and display the three cetaceans currently in its care — Helen, a Pacific white-side dolphin; Daisy, a harbour porpoise; and Chester, a false killer whale — but prohibits the aquarium from using the animals in shows, performances or any form of entertainment.
Before the vote, Vancouver Aquarium CEO John Nightingale said a ban on bringing cetaceans to the aquarium effectively shuts down its ability to rescue injured whales, porpoises and dolphins.
“We would still respond to rescues in the field, but most of the cetaceans that get rescued are youngsters separated from their moms and need a long-term home,” he said.
The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, located at the north end of Main Street, does not have the capacity to house cetaceans longterm.
Without a viable long-term home, Fisheries and Oceans Canada — which green-lights every cetacean rescue — will likely not issue a permit, meaning the animal would be left to die on a beach or be euthanized, Nightingale said.
He added the vote also threatens future rescue efforts, even of noncetaceans: “The economics of this could sink the program.”
But some park board commissioners disputed the aquarium’s position, saying the board’s decision does not prevent the mammal marine rescue centre from continuing its rescue and rehabilitation work.
“The choice of whether the marine mammal centre works with cetaceans is entirely their own,” Stuart MacKinnon said.
In recent months, the Vancouver Aquarium mounted a campaign to push back against critics.
More than 13,000 letters in support of the aquarium were sent to the park board, Nightingale said, and public polls indicate there is 95 per cent support for the rescue program.
“This is about ideology and politics, not about the conservation of animals in nature,” Nightingale said.
Roslyn Cassells, an activist and former Green party commissioner, welcomed the ban, calling it a “breakthrough.”
“The Vancouver Aquarium is a thing of the past … and placing a ban on the importation and trafficking of cetaceans will be the first nail in the coffin of a dying industry,” she said.
The debate over cetaceans at the aquarium was sparked after the death of belugas Aurora, 30, and Qila, 21, nine days apart in November because of an unidentified toxin.
In February, the aquarium announced it would phase out cetaceans by 2029, but still planned to move ahead with plans to bring back five belugas, currently on loan to U.S. breeding programs, in the interim.
The aquarium is also in the midst of a $100-million expansion project that includes larger whale tanks that were approved by a previous park board in 2006.